Press coverage of the 2023 presidential election petition tribunal; a content analysis of three selected newspapers (The Punch, Daily Trust and Vanguard Newspapers)

Abstract

The conduct of 2023 presidential election in Nigeria has no doubt generated furore, through issues that characterized the poll as captured by the media, forming the basis of perception of many observers, home and abroad. After the poll, the wave of media frenzy that trailed the conduct of the general election shifted to electoral tribunal. To identify how media faired in the post-election period, particularly, when attention shifted to election tribunal requires empirical interrogation, forming the thrust of this study. Situated within the assumptions of framing theory, the study adopted content analysis as method, it sampled 279 copies of the three selected newspaper (The Punch, Daily Trust and Vanguard) between August 6 and November 6, 2023. Findings showed that the Punch newspaper gave the election petition tribunal highest prominence with 33 stories appeared on its front page. News was the highest editorial material deployed for the coverage of the tribunal by all the selected newspapers. Three major dominant themes in the coverage were legal argument, alleged certificate forgery and alleged attempt to compromise the justices of the tribunal. The study recommended among others that newspaper should continue to maintain political neutrality in Nigeria for better credibility and improved social justice.